Category Archives: Uncategorized

Good Monday to All. I hope everyone is well and in good spirits. Wish I was. Sheesh! I am so flippin’ depressed, I hope I can get through it. Everything is gone wrong. I can’t go into it all, but, suffice to say, I don’t know what I am going to do! Oh, well! LOL

Have any of you received an e-mail from any of the file-hosting services, lately, claiming some part of your digi-files are infringing on a copyright? A few weeks ago I got an e-mail stating that 2 of my files on MediaFire were in violation of Copyright infringement. The letter, which included a bunch of legal mumbo-jumbo, included a lengthy list of all the files they were claiming as infringed. The letter open with:

Hello, My Name is Hervé Lemaire , CEO of LeakID, I am legal representative of lemaire which does business under the name Metropolitan, Authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed. You are hereby given notice valid under the DMCA copyright infringement notification requirements, 17 U.S.C.512. I am the designated agent of the owner of the copyrights of the images and audio/visual works listed below. I believe that the images and audio/visual works listed at the times cited below are being copied and distributed in a manner that has been not authorized by the owner of the copyrights, its agent or the law. All link below containing pirated versions of lemaire copyrighted works. The information in the notice is accurate, under penalty of perjury. Please remove all linksAs soon as possible, we will check them everyday. Thanks to inform us about y our actions. We appreciate your efforts toward this common goal. Very truly yours, Hervé

The files in question are part of a set of downloads for a kit I made, so, there are multiple images in the two files in question. I requested in a response that they inform me of the exact images, but, I haven’t heard back from them. I made all of the parts to the kit! That, or what I used, I knew where it came from and there were not any stipulations. I’ve never had anything like this happen to me before!

I mentioned it to an online friend and she said the same thing had happened to her! Then, this morning, while perusing a site of another scrapbooking lady in France, I saw a post about infringement and read it. The very same thing is happening to her, only she claims it is 4-Shared that sent her the e-mail.

I decided to do a little research. Apparently, this act of alerting people that their files are infringement of someone else’s rights is a cancer! I realize that copyright theft is rampant! Over at DeviantArt, it is an almost daily occurrence. Artists are closing their accounts in droves due to the outright theft of their art! One artist, with a rather unusual name, had someone open an Etsy shop, by the very same name, selling all of the artists goods for theirself! When the artist addressed the thief, the thief stated that the pieces were ‘out there’, so, what did it matter’. I guess since people post things on an open internet, it makes the things fair game in the thief’s eyes. But, to use the artist’s own name was ridiculous! The artist began removing all of her art from DA and, finally, Etsy closed the thief down.

So, I get it about the infringement. But, what if the files aren’t an infringement, as in my case and the case of the others I mention. This doesn’t even include all the rest of the files listed in the e-mail, belonging to other ‘infringers’. There were 563 infringed files on the list!

The action taken by the hosting services is to suspend the files in question. Needless to say, I am moving all of my files elsewhere. In my researching the topic online, I found several incidents of false claims that were quite scandalous. Those were big claims and one, in particular, that caught a lot of attention, proved to be a mistake. This is looking like a new way of stealing to me! What is stopping me from claiming your files as my own and alerting MediaFire or 4-Shared, providing the files are hosted on their sites? Either from lack of knowledge as to how to handle a bogus claim or from not knowing of the claim at all, you don’t do anything. Wallah! I claim them as my own and you look like a thief! That’s what is happening!

In looking over the list of files included, there are a lot of music files and games, as well as anime. Some things are obvious. like music and games. I mean, if I am hosting a hot, new artist’s music, I’m asking for trouble. It’s pretty obvious it isn’t mine! But, what about the files that are mine? I just wonder how many of this 563 files really are infringing! Somebody isn’t playing nice! I don’t have money to pay for legal fees to fight this, but, I can remove my files from MediaFire and 4-Shared. What a pain! That means I have to change all the links in my posts, too! But, that’s okay! The two sites are becoming impossible, anyway, with all the damn pop-ups! Even with my pop-up-blocker, for every download at MediaFire, I get two pop-ups.

Alrighty, then! LOL Having gotten that off my chest, let’s move on to what we are really here for – the new Freebie from Miss Edna and I! This month, we did something totally new. We made CU Okay goodies! Following a colour palette, somewhat, we have made overlays and patterns and stock images and all kinds of goodies, just for you, that may be used for Commercial Use and any other use, PU, S4H, etc. We both enjoyed creating and plan on releasing a new CU freebie once every 3 months, 4 times a year! So, do watch for those. This one is “CU001”.

We usually post QP’s for our first two(2) parts, but, not this time. Starting with Part 1, all of the offerings are free digi-elements! We will give you two(2) parts today, two(2) parts next Monday, then, the last two(2) on the following Monday. That means you’ll have a total of twelve(12) parts of new CU goodies! So, without further adieu, here are the links for the first two(2) parts.

Hello, all! Just a quick post to let you know that I am running a little behind with getting this kit out to you. Last Wednesday, lightening hit really close to my house, right here in north central Florida – the Number Two Lightening Capital of the World. LOL We’re second to a place in Africa! It blew out my motherboard, the modem and the router. Whee! I have been getting it all taken care of and should have my pc back this evening. I’m thinking Wednesday might be a good day to shoot for. I want it to be nice!

So, please, do return on Wednesday for the next parts. I so hate this! I apologize, but, this ‘fiacso’ was a doosie! Cha-ching! If you know what I mean.

Thank you!

Su

PS – Over on the right in the side bar is a place you can subscribe to my feed with RSS. If you have never used this feature, click on it and enter your e-mail info. Then, every time I post, you’ll get that post in your inbox. This might be better than remembering to check back. Isn’t technology grand!? LOL

A good Monday to everyone! This is going to be a short post. I have had pc issues and my pc guy is here, now. By this time next week, if not sooner, I will have my own website! I am so excited! I want to thank everyone for all their suggestions and help! Ya’ll are the BEST readers!

I won’t go into the details now. But, later in the week, I will post and let you know then. So, stay tuned!

Your next two ‘Parts’ downloads are ready for you today, Parts 3 and 4, from this month’s freebie kit, Monkey See, Monkey Do’. Last week, Parts 1 and 2, were the two QP’s. (See last post for download.) This week and next, we give out the elements and papers parts to the kit. Click on the Elements Preview, below, for Part 3 and the Papers Preview for Part 4. Then, click on Miss Edna’s preview to go to her blog for her two parts if you haven’t been there already.

Part 3

Part 4

Miss Edna’s Place Blog

We do hope you like! I also have some sheets that accompany this kit. I will post them later this week for the surprise I have lined up! Hee-hee!

The new Photoshop CS6 is really nice! There have been several new items that have been upgraded, like the ‘Blur’ features, ‘Content Aware Move’, and a new feature for organizing your layers palette, are just a few. I’ve tried each one out as I viewed videos on the new features. By far, the one I am using the most is the ‘Texture Palette’.When I was first introduced to Photoshop, I saw references to ‘textures’ that are applied right there inside PS. You know? Like a ‘texture pre-set’. I never found such a thing. Well, now PS has done that.

Greetings, folks! I’m settling in, somewhat, to this blog. There is so much I don’t know how to do! I cannot figure out how to add an RSS feed, but, you can subscribe to my posts through the sidebar gadget that is titled, ‘Follow Blog via Email’. Eventually, I should ‘get it’! LOL

I hope everyone had a nice weekend, honoring our dear mother earth. I had received an e-mail for a regular post series that I receive from StockVaultBlog. Caleb Kimbrough posts a set of free textures there on Fridays. When I went to download them, I noticed they were images of ‘Urban Grunge’. They look to be worn cement floors or some concrete surface that has been exposed to a lot of harsh treatment. It hit me that this was, in it’s own way, ‘recycling’. Caleb shoots the photo of some derelict construct, processes it and posts it online for folks to use as textures in their designs. How much more recycled can ya get? LOL If you want to check out the Friday posts of Caleb’s textures, visit there and sign up for the notifications if you like. These textures are different from those on his site, ‘Lost and Taken’. I’ve been able to add some very nice textures to my resources from there. So, you, go, Caleb!

I return to the doctor today. Ugh! I am so not looking forward to it! So, as nervous as I am, I am going to stop here and give you the last two parts of “April Showers”. Click on each of the previews below to go to Minus.com to download two parts, Pt 5 and Pt 6. Then, click on Miss Edna’s preview to go to her blog for her two parts. I do hope you enjoy!

Before I forget, make sure you collect the ‘Collage Sheets’ that go with this kit. They were offered on suruha-freespirit as my final post. I posted that link here, but, just in case you missed it, go HERE and snag ’em! Or, click on this preview:

Part 5

Part 6

Miss Edna’s Place

That is gonna do it for today.

I appreciate each person who visits this blog. It doesn’t matter if you do not comment, though, I do so love to read them! I just don’t worry about it. I understand it is time-consuming if you are on a tight schedule. Thank you, anyway!